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Job Training and Support Services In-The-News: Week of November 29, 2016

Weekly Roundup of the news on women and supportive services in job training programs.

By Gladys McLean

Job training can provide an entry into family-sustaining jobs and careers. Many women in job training programs, however, face obstacles to success. Wraparound services—such as child care assistance, access to public benefits, and transportation or housing assistance—can help adults, particularly those with caregiving responsibilities, to complete programs that will ultimately improve their economic standing.

“SwiftStart” will help pay for quality child care over the short term while parents earn credentials through various training programs that can help them land a good job – the type of job that will make it easier for them to pay for childcare.

[…] “As most parents know the cost of child care can be a barrier to employment [and] training to advance your employment,” says project director David Moore, “what SwiftStart does is try to marry those two issues.” In part by helping to pay for quality child care while parents or guardians get job training.

This new program in Washington County, called “Family Futures Downeast,” aims to knock down every obstacle so that these single mothers can get a college education and career training and pull their families out of poverty.

Knocking down those obstacles can mean doing the most mundane, but essential, things: The program provides gas cards so the mothers can get to class. Classes are scheduled in the evening so the mothers can work during the day. High-quality child care is supplied while parents are in class. The cost of tuition, books, supplies, even computers is covered. And each woman is assigned a mentor, who can provide emotional support, help her set goals and keep to them, and help negotiate the many logistics of what it means to be poor, a parent and a student, all at the same time.